Video 9:38
Alcohol access in the north Tanami

Danielle Parry
Mon 26 Nov 2012, 7:48 PM AEDT

Moves to limit access to alcohol in the western Top End.

Transcript

LOUISA REBGETZ, PRESENTER: A storm is brewing on the northern edge of the Tanami over attempts to limit local access to alcohol. It's a battle that pits police against one of the Territory's iconic road houses and positions a collection of hardcore drinkers against an increasingly religious group of families who are fed up with the trauma caused by grog in their communities. It's also shaping as a first test of the new Government's commitment to alcohol reform in the bush. Danielle Parry reports from Kalkarindji in the western Top End and a warning, some of the material may distress Indigenous viewers.

DANIELLE PARRY, REPORTER: It's Friday night in the Aboriginal community of Kalkarindji, almost 500 kilometres south-west of Katherine and police are screening cars as they come into town. They're breath-testing drivers and searching for alcohol being run into this dry community. One passenger is caught travelling without a seatbelt. But all the drivers pass the breathalyser, in what police say is a refreshingly good night on the roads. Sadly, it isn't always the case in this part of the world.

SUPT DANNY BACON, NT POLICE: There's been a number of deaths in that region, particularly associated with fatal road crashes but also just the domestic violence and personal violence in the communities. It's quite sickening for the officers to respond, let alone obviously to the victims.

DANIELLE PARRY: The Top Springs Hotel is an isolated road house at the cross roads of the Buntine and Buchanan Highways, which service an array of cattle stations and the communities of Kalkarindji and Lajamanu. It sells fuel and food, but it also has the only takeaway liquor licence for hundreds of kilometres.

PAULINE HASELDINE, TOP SPRINGS HOTEL MANAGER: We're here to operate a business and run a business successfully. We are not breaking the law. We are selling what we're allowed to sell.

DANIELLE PARRY: 7.30 understands that over the last financial year Top Springs stocked its shelves with the equivalent of more than a thousand standard drinks of alcohol every day.

PAULINE HASELDINE, TOP SPRINGS HOTEL MANAGER: We are a hotel so yes we do sell lots of alcohol, but that's what we're here for Danielle - to sell alcohol. We're not a milk bar, nothing like that. We're here to sell alcohol.

DANIELLE PARRY: The takeaway alcohol is mostly consumed at bush drinking spots like this one, outside the limits of dry communities such as Kalkarindji and Lajamanu.

MARTIN PLASCO, KALKARINDJI NIGHT PATROL: They buy a lot of it. One person go there and buy maybe 10 cartons or nine cartons, or can buy maybe six or seven spirits you know. And they won't drink themself - you know that you've got to come back, drink down the grid, shouting all his mates.

SUPT DANNY BACON, NT POLICE: Certainly what we've been able to examine through a lot of either fatal road crashes within the particular region or some significant violent offence in the region, we've been able to determine that there's been large amounts of takeaway alcohol that have been purchased within that particular area.

DANIELLE PARRY: Authorities are trying to tackle the problem through restrictions at Top Springs. The Hotel is appealing against moves to cap its takeaway sales at 36 cans of heavy or 90 cans of lighter beer per car, per day.

PAULINE HASELDINE, TOP SPRINGS HOTEL MANAGER: It's ludicrous. People have got freedom and choice and they should not be telling, or dictating terms to what we can or what we can't sell.

DANIELLE PARRY: Top Springs says the changes will only move the problem into Katherine.

PAULINE HASELDINE, TOP SPRINGS HOTEL MANAGER: They can go in and buy a pallet, no restrictions whatsoever. What is happening now, people are bypassing us here. We've had a huge loss of trade, since the word has got out about trying to place restrictions on us.

DANIELLE PARRY: Authorities are also trying to change the licence here at the social club in Kalkarindji.

SUPT DANNY BACON, NT POLICE: Certainly in Kalkarindji, the social club there, we are asking the licensing conditions for that particular club to go from heavy strength beer to light and mid-strength beer for that particular area.

DANIELLE PARRY: The town has had a club for decades and it's long been at the centre of community life.

LEAH LEAMAN, KALKARINDJI RESIDENT: People can go there, have their beer like any other person. You know you work hard all day, naturally you want a cold beer and to sit down and have a chat with your friends.

DANIELLE PARRY: The Victoria Daly Shire Council holds the licence for the club and has lodged an appeal against the changes. But it's unclear whether the objection will proceed. The Club has already voluntarily stopped selling full-strength for the time being and some locals aren't happy.

ROSLYN FRITH, KALKARINDJI RESIDENT: We love our heavies. Some have been forced to change but we're not children to be expected to change you know, we're adults. We choose what we want and that's the way it should be.

DANIELLE PARRY: Roslyn Frith says the main trouble is caused by takeaway from Top Springs and not the Club. She says during the Territory election campaign her new local member, Bess Price, promised to fight for full-strength beer to stay here. But the Country Liberals have failed to deliver.

ROSLYN FRITH, KALKARINDJI RESIDENT: You don't make promises to people and then when you're up there in the air-conditioned comfort we get nothing back, we're just left now. Just a voice lost in the wind, that's all we are.

DANIELLE PARRY: Leah Leaman works at the local health clinic and sees the effects of grog every day. She doesn't drink but supports full-strength beer staying, as long as it's accompanied by proper alcohol support services.

LEAH LEAMAN, KALKARINDJI RESIDENT: Because then it keeps our people here - you haven't got them all running, driving to Top Springs or driving to Dunmarra or sending money with whoever, you know to get full-strength because that's what's happening now.

DANIELLE PARRY: The club was closed when we arrived because of an accident a month ago. A 14-year-old girl was killed when a car full of people she was driving rolled between Kalkarindji and Daguragu. 7.30 understands that some passengers in the car had been drinking and the case is now before the Coroner.

PETER PATTERSON, LAJAMANU NIGHT PATROL: I came for the funeral for my granddaughter to say to goodbye. Yeah I was pretty sad, want to say goodbye because in the cemetery I was standing looking at that coffin really hard - why my granddaughter is leaving me because she is only 14 years old?

DANIELLE PARRY: Lajamanu night patrol workers Peter Patterson and Tina Dickenson are the girl's grandparents. They drove over to Kalkarindji for the funeral and believe the teenager is another casualty of the region's grog addiction.

TINA DICKENSON, LAJAMANU NIGHT PATROL: We feel very sad because of alcohol - that will take our loved ones away, that she was just only a young girl.

DANIELLE PARRY: Kalkarindji Night Patrol worker Martin Plasco is on the frontline of his community's alcohol problems. He says things have been quieter here in recent weeks and is one of many who credits the influence of religion.

MARTIN PLASCO, KALKARINDJI NIGHT PATROL: That's their own feeling. They try to change to go to church, that's a good feeling because there no-one drinks, no-one fighting.

TINA DICKENSON, LAJAMANU NIGHT PATROL: They are giving their lives just to leave everything behind like grog, card, fighting and all those things, jealousy, just to move on.

DANIELLE PARRY: The Baptist Church is developing a strong following in the Territory's west as people turn away from grog and the trauma it's causing in their communities. Several hundred people from right across the region turned out for this week's Sunday Service, here at the Kalkarindji Baptist church. Church leaders wouldn't let us film the gathering or the mass baptism for 85 people that followed in a nearby creek. But those attending have told us they're now enthusiastically embracing religion. They say it's had a positive, calming effect on the community and is changing attitudes to grog.

DANIELLE PARRY: Police are hoping it's a trend that will continue with the help of new restrictions. They'll make their case at a licensing commission hearing in Katherine next month where the issue is set to come to a head.

SUPT DANNY BACON, NT POLICE: My role is to keep people safe, it's to reduce harm in the community. From my perspective, I think that there is an identified need to restrict sales for the betterment of the community.

ROSLYN FRITH, KALKARINDJI RESIDENT: I think my message is like you're not dealing with just a few people who are non-drinkers. You've got to think of people who are drinkers as well. We have a voice, we'll fight for what we feel is right and what we want.

LOUISA REBGETZ: Danielle Parry reporting there. And in a phone conversation with 7.30 yesterday, the Member for Stuart, Bess Price, wouldn't confirm or deny whether she'd made promises during the election campaign to lobby for full-strength beer to remain in Kalkarindji. She promised to investigate the alcohol situation in her electorate further and said she wasn't aware the issue had progressed so far.